ForeverTrail - Community Guidelines
DRAFT - not yet reviewed by an attorney. This document is written in plain language on purpose, but it works alongside our Terms of Service, which is the binding legal agreement. Have a lawyer review both before publishing either.
ForeverTrail exists so people can give someone they've lost a place on the map - a real story, tied to a real spot that mattered. That only works if it stays a kind, honest, and respectful place. These guidelines explain what that looks like in practice.
The short version
Post like the person's family might read it - because they might. Be honest about who you are to the person you're remembering. Don't use ForeverTrail to hurt, harass, mislead, or spam anyone.
What belongs on ForeverTrail
- A real memory, about a real person who has died, tied to a real place that meant something.
- Your own honest connection to that person - a memorial's creator states their relationship to the deceased as part of submitting it, and that should be true.
- Photos you have the right to share.
- Comments that add something - a shared memory, a kind word, a correction offered gently.
What doesn't belong on ForeverTrail
- Memorials for people who are still living, or fabricated/joke memorials. ForeverTrail's review process exists specifically to catch this - creating a memorial requires a link to a real, published obituary.
- Content posted to harass, defame, or embarrass the deceased, their family, or anyone else.
- Hate speech, threats, or content that attacks someone based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or similar characteristics.
- Sexually explicit or graphic violent content.
- Spam, advertising, or content unrelated to remembering the person the memorial is for.
- Impersonating another person, including claiming a relationship to the deceased that isn't true.
- Photos you don't have the right to share, or photos of people (living or deceased) posted without appropriate care for their dignity and privacy.
- Someone else's private information you don't have the right to share (an address, a phone number, financial information, and similar).
How moderation actually works on ForeverTrail
- Every new memorial is reviewed by a moderator before it goes live - we check that the obituary link is real. This is a basic authenticity check, not a background check, and it doesn't happen for individual memories or comments, which appear immediately once posted.
- Anyone can report a memory, a comment, or an entire memorial - look for the report flag next to it. You don't need an account to report something.
- A moderator reviews reports and can remove the memory, comment, or memorial, or dismiss the report if it doesn't violate these guidelines. A moderator can also remove content directly at any time, even if nobody has reported it.
- If your content is removed, we'll generally let you know by email. We try to be fair, but we don't promise a formal appeals process - if you think a removal was a mistake, you're welcome to reach out to privacy@forevertrail.com and explain.
- Repeated or serious violations can lead to account suspension or termination, at our discretion.
A note on grief and disagreement
Families don't always agree on how someone should be remembered, and memory itself is imperfect - two people can genuinely recall the same person differently without either one being dishonest. Disagreement about tone, detail, or emphasis isn't automatically a guidelines violation, and our moderators won't take sides in a genuine difference of memory. What we can do is limited to the same tools described above: leave contested content up if it doesn't violate these guidelines, or remove it if it does. We can't mediate a family dispute, arbitrate whose account of events is correct, or facilitate a conversation between the people involved - if that's needed, it has to happen between you directly, outside ForeverTrail.
Questions
If something on ForeverTrail concerns you, or you're not sure whether something you want to post fits here, reach out: privacy@forevertrail.com